Say you are hanging out with friends on a Thursday evening. Everyone wants to do something fun the next day, instead of the usual brunch. How do you decide between skydiving and dune surfing? Would walking into a booth on the street corner and experiencing these activities virtually make it easier to decide?

With the Dh2.3 million Dubai Canvas 3D Art Award gaining in popularity year on year, it is obvious that people are looking for newer experiences all the time. The question this raises is: What is next in the rapidly evolving world of advertising? What can get customers excited? How do brands exploit technology to capture the attention of a population whose average attention span is measured in minutes?

The answer is slowly but surely pointing to an experience that is gaining traction in today's technology-addicted world - virtual reality (VR).
While in the last few years, VR experiences on smartphones, using first generation devices such as Google cardboard, have not had the desired impact on consumers, they have opened our minds to the possibilities of this medium.

A medium that was initially only appreciated by serious gamers on special consoles and children at arcades is spreading its wings far and wide. The scope it offers is one that can change the way advertising is viewed by the consumer. It can provide marketers with opportunities to engage with an audience on the basis of relevance and further reduce the mismatch between viewer and advertiser that digital media has been narrowing down.

On the contrary, a Forrester report released this year states that "Virtual reality in marketing is still more hype than reality". The context here being pure VR experiences are expensive and there is a definite lack of awareness about the product. The report states that in five years, the scenario could change.

Advertising, however, does not require a pure immersive experience, one that is an artificially created environment that changes as the user progresses. A simple augmented or mixed reality, where pre-shot scenes have objects superimposed on them in 2D or 3D would be interesting enough to introduce audiences to a brand experience. The best example of this is the Pokémon Go phenomenon that took the world by storm last year.

Initially, Pokémon Go started out as an augmented reality game with coordinates chosen by gaming company Niantic. Gradually, the company has added sponsored locations as stops on the game as a marketing tool to increase location-specific footfall.

The popularity of any online service or portal is usually measured by two metrics - the number of users logging on and the time spent on the application by an average user. According to reports from online data tracking firms such as SimilarWeb, Pokémon Go has more daily users than Twitter and people seem to be spending more time on it than on Facebook. SurveyMonkey named it the 'biggest mobile game in US history'.

This sort of engagement could be taken one step further with direct advertising of products and services at the most effective locations and times. Say hungry kids at a park spot munching on a particular brand of cookies. This probably triggers an instant desire for the product.

Imagine a scenario where audiences out to cheer marathoners have to locate and tag virtual treasures hidden along the route by sponsors to win prizes. This would be a far more effective way of creating brand awareness than an overload of branding on participants' clothing and billboards or banners. Most importantly, it would capture the attention of our focus-deficient generation.

Finally, take the example of the documentary, Capturing Everest for Sports Illustrated. The VR film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year. The film shot on GoPro cameras on an actual Everest expedition provides viewers with new experience of the one of the most dangerous climbs in the world.

Says Lauren Selig, a producer on the Everest project: "Every aspect of VR, from acquisition to delivery is entirely different from any other form of media. VR solves a huge problem marketers have around engagement and awareness. You have to make it immersive, impactful, memorable, novel, tactile and effective and keep brand integrity."

Will subtle advertising in such a film result in cases of inspirational buying? Will marketers be able to tap into our desire for a better life and sell us products that promise to bring us as close as possible to people who have achieved feats most of us can only dream of?

The writer is an entrepreneur a